1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a holder assembly for a relay connector that is to be mounted, for example, on a casing of an engine, a transmission, a motor, or the like, and through which internal wires are to be connected to external wires.
2. Related Art
Some kinds of relay connectors are formed by holding terminals on the surface side of a non-conductive mounting plate, and then incorporating them into a synthetic resin-made housing by secondary insert molding. A relay connector in which terminals that have not yet been subjected to secondary insert molding can be prevented from being caused to drop off from a holder or deform by an external force, and the reliability of the electrical connection can be improved is disclosed in, for example, JP-A-2012-164520.
In the invention disclosed in JP-A-2012-164520, in order to prevent an external force from being applied to terminals which have not yet been subjected to secondary insert molding from being, to cause the terminals to drop off from a holder or to be deformed, when secondary insert molding is to be performed on a holder assembly in a state where the terminals are held to the holder, a cover is attached to the holder in the state where the terminals are held by the holder, thereby clamping the terminals.
JP-A-2010-272354 discloses an invention in which cost reduction and productivity improvement are enabled in a device connector formed by performing secondary insert molding.
The invention disclosed in JP-A-2010-272354 includes: a primary molding step of molding a primary molded body in which pilot holes are formed in a connector housing; a terminal press-fitting step of press-fitting intermediate terminals into the pilot holes to form an intermediate product; and an insert molding step of setting the intermediate product in a secondary molding die, and molding a device connector. The primary molded body has: a resin inflow opening which, during the secondary molding, allows a resin supplied from a gate to flow through the primary molded body; and a supporting projection which internally contacts the secondary molding die.
According to the configuration, the resin flow during the secondary molding is improved, and the intermediate product is prevented from being positionally displaced, whereby the rate of defective products can be suppressed, and cost reduction and productivity improvement are enabled.
In both the inventions, when the intermediate product is to be subjected to secondary molding by insert molding, however, there is a possibility that dispersion occurs in the resulting performance of the intermediate product, and hence the productivity of the secondary molding is lowered. Moreover, there is still room for improvement in the alignment dimensions of the terminals.
The invention has been conducted in view of the above-discussed circumstances. It is an object of the invention to enable cost reduction and improvement of a product in the case where an intermediate product including intermediate terminals is subjected to secondary insert molding, and more particularly to, in the case where such an intermediate product is to be subjected to secondary molding by insert molding, prevent the productivity of the secondary molding and the correctness of the alignment dimensions of terminals from being reduced due to the resulting performance of the intermediate product.